Star Trek Into Darkness

I guess what I always loved about Star Trek is always leaving an episode with an amazing philosophical quote.


The movies did even better, and Abrams's was good... I just kinda wish he would get a writer who worked with Roddenberry, to make it better.
 
I love that. I mean, if they're messing with us, that's awesome. If there's some kind of irony or multiple levels of drama going on with that, I thinks that freaking awesome. I mean, it would just make the fiction deeper, so to speak, and more clever, and possibly, more satisfying. 'Course it depends upon just what's going on with that and just how clever (or not clever) it turns out to be and where, if anywhere, they take it. Hey, if they're going that "deep," good for us, I suspect. =)

Agreed. I think they're messing with us. But I'm hoping that's actually the characters' name. Big-time symbology! :D
 
Okay, borderline trolling jokes aside, I like DS9 and many of the movies (Wrath of Khan is undeniably brilliant, but the one with the whales, really?) I've seen most of TOS and TNG, but I don't like them. I respect them, and what they were trying to do, but I don't like them.

I agree that Star Trek is all about equality (and dig that), and I think Abrams' series preserves that. However, on the nature of hope, I think that TOS and TNG get bogged down in a jingoistic sense of "right". I like DS9 because it explored the aspect that maybe the Federation isn't right for everyone all the time. I'd personally like to see more of that in new films, but I don't personally buy into utopia, so there is that.

Compare/contrast with Farscape...the space cops are the bad guys, but then you find out there are bad guys that they are holding in place. Which is the lesser of two evils, and should we even accept any form of evil? But I'm a rabid individualist, so there is that. Either way, I'm looking forward to the new movie; if it's half as fun as the last, I'll enjoy it!
 
...but the one with the whales, really?

How dare you? :P

I like that one a lot. Ah well. Different strokes.

I liked Voyager quite a bit too. Doesn't seem to get mentioned. I think they tried a little with Voyager to bring a little bit of adventure back to Star Trek. I liked Janeway. She was to a modest degree a sort of female version of Jim Kirk. Not a philanderer, of course. More subdued, or moderate, I suppose. But it felt a little bit like having Kirk back at the helm. Loved the developing -and fun- romance between her and Q.
 
Pre-Abrams era, The Voyage Home is actually my favorite. Many of my favorite episodes followed the same fish out of water format. My favorite is Data as Sherlock.
 
How dare you? :P

I like that one a lot. Ah well. Different strokes.

I liked Voyager quite a bit too. Doesn't seem to get mentioned. I think they tried a little with Voyager to bring a little bit of adventure back to Star Trek. I liked Janeway. She was to a modest degree a sort of female version of Jim Kirk. Not a philanderer, of course. More subdued, or moderate, I suppose. But it felt a little bit like having Kirk back at the helm. Loved the developing -and fun- romance between her and Q.

I love Voyager. It gets a lot of hate for some reason, but I think it's the next best thing to TNG. And I totally agree about Janeway being the female Kirk (minus the womanizing, of course.) She was pretty bad-ass.

Pre-Abrams era, The Voyage Home is actually my favorite.

Pre-Abrams I gotta go First Contact, but IV is my fave TOS movie.

Many of my favorite episodes followed the same fish out of water format. My favorite is Data as Sherlock.

"We are still on the holodeck."
bug_eye.gif
 
I love the Borg. First Contact is my favorite movie, I just watched that recently... good ol' VHS tape bought at Goodwill.

I hope, if Abrams continues this series for a while, that Kirk and crew discover the Borg. I'd love to see what JJ could do with them.
 
Awesome. I third that. First Contact is probably my favorite Star Trek movie too.

Well, might as well make a list. I think it would go something like this, 1 being best and on down:

Oh, this might not be so easy. But I'll give it a try.

1 Galaxy Quest

I'm only half-kidding. Maybe more like one-eighth-kidding. Not sure I'm kidding at all. I mean, I like to say that, and I know that I'm being cheeky when I say that, but I'm also being serious. =)

It ends up being an affectionate and a very successful send-up of Star Trek, and I have real affection for it.

2 First Contact (8)

It just does everything right, doesn't it? It has action & adventure. It has comedy. It has romance. It's smart. It has high drama, whatever that means. I'm thinking of the "Moby Dick Scene," for one. What outstanding performances by both Patrick Stewart and Alfre Woodard. And James Cromwell as Zephran Cochran is great as a guy who helped to make Starfleet and the Federation possible, as well being sort of an antidote to what it's become. And of course, another thing that made it great was Alice Krige as the Borg Queen. Krige delivered a great performance, and everyone did such a great job of making the Queen happen, like the makeup people and special effects people etc. And of course there's the very entertaining parley or dance or battle of wits between the Queen and Data.

3 The Undiscovered Country (6)

4 The Voyage Home (4)

5 The Motion Picture (1)

6 The Wrath of Khan (2)

7 Star Trek 2009 (11)


This is where it gets trickier. I haven't seen some of these for a long time, too.

8 Insurrection (9)

9 Generations (7)

10 Nemesis (10)

11 The Search for Spock (3)

12 The Final Frontier (5)


I hope Into Darkness is sooo good that it goes right at the top of the list. But I doubt it will be able to unseat those already there. Hey, if it's just top 7 or 8 worthy, that'll be pretty good.

Damn, this sort of puts me in the mood for a Trek marathon. :)
 
Last edited:
I prefer countdowns, so I'll start with the worst and finish with the best.

11. Final Frontier
10. The Motion Picture
9. Insurrection
8. Generations
7. The Search for Spock
6. Nemesis
5. First Contact
4. Undiscovered Country
3. Khan
2. Voyage Home
1. Star Trek (2009)
 
I think Abrams brings Trek into a much more mainstream realm - Trek fans have always had a 'nerdy' connotation, whereas the new films seem to bring Trek into a much more mainstream sci-fi realm, where hardcore fans can still like it, and it can also bring in new people who weren't necessarily fans of the 'nerdy' TV series' and the philosophical life lessons.

I think the fact that some scenes have been shot on IMAX are interesting - I love that film is being used 100% as well, in the genre that potentially lends itself most to digital acquisition. I'm sure there will be even more stunning imagery in the new film.



On the topic of the show, my faves are TNG and Enterprise.
 
I enjoy all of the movies and I must say that Crackerfunk and I agree on a lot! That surprised me. Here's my list, starting with my favorites:


1) STAR TREK 2009 (I've already elaborated on this one in two previous posts.)

2) WRATH OF KHAN (Some great writing in this. Great bad guy, good conflict and a kick-ass James Horner score.)

3) SEARCH FOR SPOCK (Kirk and crew steal the Enterprise and go rogue. The Enterprise blows up, taking out a Klingon contingent! Christopher Lloyd is cool as the Klingon commander. Kirk and crew overtake the Bird of Prey. I think most people underrate this one.)

4) VOYAGE HOME (Great intro showing the magnificence of Spock's intellect. I'm a sucker for time travel and love all the humorous bits - McCoy comparing hospital staff to stone age witch doctors, Scotty giving an advanced formula to a 20th century company, Spock having taken too much "LDS," etc.)

5) UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY (Loved the shootout in zero gravity with the floating blood. Kirk and McCoy escape a Klingon prison.)

6) FIRST CONTACT (My fave NEXT GEN cast movie. I agree with most of what Richy said, especially Alice Krige.)

7) NEMESIS (Kind of neat to revisit this one and see Tom Hardy (BATMAN'S Bane) as a young villian.)

8) FINAL FRONTIER (The God entity was strange. I didn't mind most of the movie, though.)

9) ST: THE MOTION PICTURE (I have not seen it, since 1979, in the theater. This is my favorite soundtrack score - Jerry Goldsmith and the Blaster Beam! The opening Klingon assault was beautiful and I saw it twice just for that sequence. After that, the pace is terrible. I'm die hard enough to appreciate the movie, though.)

10) INSURRECTION (Kind of a weak premise - relocating a civilization into a holodeck, without them knowing about it. Still enjoyable.)

11) GENERATIONS (Kirk and Picard together! This should have been awesome, but it plays very forced. I did enjoy the Enterprise saucer crash sequence!)
 
How many KLINGONS does it take to change a light bulb ?

A true Klingon Warrior is not afraid of the dark!!
 
Since we're doing lists....

1. First Contact

2. The Voyage Home

3. tie Generations I loved the premise of the nexus. I thought Picard and Kirk played really well together. The pacing was nice and it had a good balance, imo, of action and emotion.

3. tie Star Trek (2009) I definitely think this is a better film than Generations on most levels, but the nostalgia factor is weighted heavy for me.

5. Insurrection It would have been a fantastic two-parter in the series, maybe one of my favorites. As a film it was a little hokey but still very engaging (no pun intended) for me.

Here's where my list gets tricky, too, because I haven't sat through a lot of these for years now and some I think I've really only watched with full attention once.

6. The Search for Spock

7. The Undiscovered Country This is the one where Kirk ends up in that frozen prison world, right? I remember really liking that part and also the klingon trial.

8. The Wrath of Kahn Obviously the writing is good but the pacing really bores me. I can't get myself to sit all the way through it as an adult, same with the rest of the TOS films below.

9. Final Frontier

10. The Motion Picture

11. Nemesis This one I do remember well. Don't really care for it at all.

Honorable mention that sits parallel to the top 3: Galaxy Quest. It's really funny and a wonderful tribute. I even liked Tim Allen in it.
 
As long as Abrams gets rid of the whining in this one I'll be happy. If I had to encapsulate the first Abrams ST in one word, that would be it: whining. Bunch of sniveling, snot-nosed, self-absorbed, whiny little brats who had no business working in a military setting, much less commanding an umpteen-billion dollar starship! The original (Shatner) Kirk was arrogant, spontaneous, brash and overly dramatic, but he never f**king whined (to my recollection). Even Abrams' Romulan villian was a whiner! I wanted to just slap the whole lot of them!

My wife, a huge fan of the original series and cast, summed it up best: Space, 90210. :D
 
As long as Abrams gets rid of the whining in this one I'll be happy. If I had to encapsulate the first Abrams ST in one word, that would be it: whining. Bunch of sniveling, snot-nosed, self-absorbed, whiny little brats who had no business working in a military setting, much less commanding an umpteen-billion dollar starship! The original (Shatner) Kirk was arrogant, spontaneous, brash and overly dramatic, but he never f**king whined (to my recollection).

Ha ha ha! That's pretty funny. :yes:

I think the character bits worked for me, because we are seeing kids (Chekov is 17 years old) taking on adult duties and wrestling with who they are. I never made a direct comparison and thought of this as more of a beginning.
 
My wife, a huge fan of the original series and cast, summed it up best: Space, 90210. :D

:lol: That's pretty good.

I'm gonna have to give Generations another chance. I definitely didn't like it the first or second time I saw it. But both Dready (whose opinion I of course weight heavily) and my closest nerd-friend-coworker are pretty high on it.

I also didn't like Pulp Fiction, the first time I saw it. But now, it's on my list of top-ten favorite movies of all time. Go figure.
 
:lol: That's pretty good.

I'm gonna have to give Generations another chance. I definitely didn't like it the first or second time I saw it. But both Dready (whose opinion I of course weight heavily) and my closest nerd-friend-coworker are pretty high on it.

I also didn't like Pulp Fiction, the first time I saw it. But now, it's on my list of top-ten favorite movies of all time. Go figure.



Dude, Generations is awesome. That's the movie that furthered my Trek addiction
 
Back
Top